The Intertextual Approach in the Work of Pierre Michon

Pierre Michon’s work is an illustration of the contemporary generation of French writers, representing an original work, a mixture of erudition and imaginaton. The problematic perspective of this paper focuses on the practice of intertextuality, in some of his filiation novels and biographical fictions: Vies minuscules [Small lives], Vie de Joseph Roulin [The life of Joseph Roulin], Abbés [Abbots], La Grande Beune [The great Beune], Le Roi du bois [The king of the wood], Les Onze [The eleven]. In the beginning of this article, we are going to develop and nuance the theoretical framework underlying the analysis of intertextual elements in Michon’s work. We will use, offering it a broad development, the concept of intertextuality, which, on the one hand, constitutes a key element for the Michon’s textual ensemble, and, on the other hand, it presents an objective interest by situating and considering this text within the textual ensemble– political, social, cultural, historical- that generated it. We start from the hypothesis that intertextual practice determines and explains Michon’s artistic and aesthetic inclinations. This research summons Julia Kristeva’s intertextuality who privileges the modus of operation of the text and the dynamics that produce it without referring it to causes that would be external to it. This approach will allow us to focus on the intertextual traces in order to identify the forms present in the work. Intertextuality becomes a seal in Pierre Michon’s work, which is shown by the presence in his texts of rare words, collocations, allusions, quotation and symbolic constructions. Michon’s appeal to archive texts, cultural, pictorial and historic references, are the proof of erudition and a very rich cultural background inserted into his work with the purpose of confusing the reader. The presence of great authors such as Beckett, Faulkner, Flaubert, Bon, Rimbaud, Racine, Platonov, Dumas or Shakespeare are the proof that the contemporary literature could not exist without the back world and that it has to lean on this one. Pierre Michon mentions the texts which he discovered in his youth, the founding readings which gave him some boldness to enter literature. Erudite and books devourer, insatiable reader, he spends a lot of his time reading and makes his entrance to literature at the age of 38. By observing the references and allusions made by Michon in his work, the library that reveals itself is of considerable size. A general theoretical framework of intertextuality and functional aspects of intertextual practice will be essential for our approach. Developing and nuanced the theoretical framework means supporting the analysis of the intertextual elements in his work. The concept of intertextuality is a determining factor for the Michonian textual whole, and presents a target concern in that it situates and considers the text in the textual whole – political, historical, cultural – that created it. Pierre Michon’s writing is part of a permanent dialogue with the historical, literary and mythological tradition. Genette (1982) mentions that reading this type of texts brings out everything that puts the writer in a relationship, manifest or secret, with other texts (p. 7). Intertextuality occupies a central place in his work, which is invaded by intertextual traces. Michon uses it in all its forms: implicit, explicit and references to books and works of art. This work aims to study the origins of these references, the richness of which shows a dense and erudite writing. The aim is to show how the practice of intertextuality explains the writer’s artistic inclination.